Music.
“Music can make us do what it wants”- Pythagoras
While Koch touched on the idea that poetic language is like creating music with words, he spends the following chapter explaining some of the ways to go about doing this. He talked about the use of repetition—both in sounds and in rhythms. Line division is an important part of giving rhythm to a poem because changing how the lines are divided will greatly affect the poem’s performance. Koch included a helpful discussing of meter, defining it as both the kind of stress pattern as well as the number of times this pattern is repeated in each line. Within a metrical line, there is imposed metrical rhythm as well as the natural rhythm of the words used, so when a poem is read, one can actually hear them both. So, constructing good metrical lines means understanding these rhythms and finding a balance between them. Koch also discussed the rise in popularity of non-metrical poetry within modern poetry. He gives O’Hara’s “Steps” as an example of this form of poetry.
oh god it’s wonderful
to get out of bed
and drink too much coffee
and smoke too many cigarettes
and love you so much
So, Koch defines meter as a poetic use of the order and rhythm of syllables. He next turns to rhyme, which he defines as a poetic use of the sound of words. He delineates between complete rhyme, partial rhyme, end rhyme, and alliteration. For example, Keats “The Eve of St. Agnes”:
Anon his heart revives: her vespers done,
Of all its wreathed pearls her hair she frees;
Unclasps her warmed jewels one by one;
Loosens her fragrant bodice; by degrees
Her rich attire creeps rustling to her knees:
Half-hidden, like a mermaid in sea-week,
Pensive awhile she dreams awake, and sees,
In Fancy, fair St. Agnes in her bed,
But dares not look behind, or all the charm is fled.
